@WillWorkForChocolate, when I saw the first film in the LOTR trilogy, I noticed that he came onscreen with the kind of camera treatment usually reserved for highly recognizable stars. I’d never seen or heard of Sean Bean before and wondered why he merited the “Wow, look who’s here!” shot.

The clue is in the scene where he picks up the shards of Narsil, draws blood with the edge of the blade, and says, “Still sharp!” By then British audiences would have been familiar with his role in the character of Richard Sharpe, a British soldier in the Napoleonic Wars. My guess is that savvy British audiences in theaters would have reacted audibly to this obvious allusion. But I just thought it was kind of a corny thing for a guy to say who has just cut his own finger with a sword.

Eventually I ran across a reference to that line, and it led me to the series. I got them all on DVD, one after the other, from Netflix. You want to be sure to get them in the right order. One nice thing is that, unlike Boromir, he gets to remain a hero all the way through.

Thanks for your confidence in my spelling. I do know how to spell, but I am by no means immune to typos. However, I don’t like it when automatic overrides stick me with mistakes I didn’t go to the trouble of making myself.

@Jeruba I had watched Sharpe’s Rifles, but your answer just now had me get the pun!

In LOTR, his character Boromir is also supposed to be a great and famous hero, who just arrived on quest having traveled by himself all the way from Gondor, so it would make sense for him to get attention regardless of who was playing him.